ahaha...i got to the scrinched up face and hadda laugh, Vladan.
my daw is 'audacity'. the meters stop at -12 and the next division is '0'. so i try to get the mix level (after messing with all the tracks to get them to sound like i want) to 'in the middle between -12 and 0'. the meters do have a 'maximum' mark that remains for the duration of the last playing....that's what i try to stick in the middle. as far as i know, there is no expansion 'effect' in audacity. then again, i don't ever hook the music computer to the internet, so i don't have a manual. learn as you go, kinda like roping sheep

audacity will right quick show any clipping. it's surprising how clipping occurs, really. when it does, there is a 'mixer function' board to pull up. if i have already got levels of tracks about like they sound good to me, i go thru and pull every track down 'a skosh' (old swedish term, my swedish friends told me-means 'a very little bit'). shortly, there will be no clipping shown.
really, when i think about some of the music i hear on fm or on cd, i think i don't want anything to sound as blurred and full as that does. not my 'thing'. have been messing with the electric piano today. the keys by themselves...just one note at a time...sound sexy/tawny/full/deep/something or other...anyway... i like that sound.
the analyse function in audacity shows frequencies and '-db' down from zero. i work it somewhere near the end of the mixing process to see are the frequencies balanced.
sometime (not today) i will hav eto get my '.wav' storage and listen to the whole mess i want to put on cd to see if anything is way out of whack. honestly, i'm not sure i will ever do that (make a cd), but maybe i will. i'm tryin' to loaf today...lotta wind, tore the brackets off the hay barn door, so i got welding to do whenever the dang 'storm' passes.
so, in sum, i am having to guess between meters that show '-12 to zero', the meters on my mixer board, the analyze function and...my ears. when i n doubt, i trust my ears.